Zhan Beleniuk

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vensanovych and the family name is Beleniuk.

Zhan Beleniuk
Жан Беленюк
Beleniuk with his gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Member of the Ukrainian Parliament for Servant of the People
Incumbent
Assumed office July 2019
Personal details
Born	(1991-01-24) 24 January 1991 (age 33) Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Sports career
Full name	Zhan Vensanovych Beleniuk
Nationality	Ukrainian
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	85 kg (187 lb)
Sport	Wrestling
Event	Greco-Roman
Club	Spartak Kyiv
Coached by	Vitalyj Kisilisa Aleksej Dobrovolskyj Oleg Sazonov
Retired	yes
Medal record Men's Greco-Roman wrestling Representing  Ukraine Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 1 1 World Championships 2 1 2 European Championships 3 0 3 European Games 1 1 0 Summer Universiade 0 0 1 Military Games 1 0 0 Total 8 3 7 Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo 87 kg 2016 Rio de Janeiro 85 kg 2024 Paris 87 kg World Championships 2015 Las Vegas 85 kg 2019 Nur-Sultan 87 kg 2018 Budapest 87 kg 2014 Tashkent 85 kg 2023 Belgrade 87 kg European Championships 2014 Vantaa 85 kg 2016 Riga 85 kg 2019 Bucharest 87 kg 2012 Belgrade 84 kg 2021 Warsaw 87 kg 2024 Bucharest 87 kg European Games 2019 Minsk 87 kg 2015 Baku 85 kg Summer Universiade 2013 Kazan 84 kg Military Games 2015 Mungyeong 85 kg

Zhan Vensanovych Beleniuk^[a] (Ukrainian: Жан Венсанович Беленюк; born 24 January 1991) is a Ukrainian politician and retired Greco-Roman wrestler. He is a three-time Olympic medalist and won the gold medal in the Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the silver medal in the Greco-Roman 85 kg at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Beleniuk is also a two-time world champion, a three-time European champion and a European Games champion. In 2019, he became the first black member of the Ukrainian Parliament.^[1][2][3]

Early life

Beleniuk was born in 1991 in Kyiv to a father from Rwanda and a mother from Ukraine. His father was a pilot who studied in Kyiv at the National Aviation University and died during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda when Beleniuk was 3 years old.^[4]

Beleniuk began wrestling in 2000 when he was nine years old.^[5]

Career

In 2010, Beleniuk won the silver medal at the Junior World Championships. In 2011, he became the Junior European Champion amongst, and won bronze at the World Championship. In 2012, he won the bronze medal at the European Championships. In 2013, he won bronze again at the Summer Universiade.

In 2014, he won a gold medal at the 2014 European Wrestling Championships,^[6] and bronze at the World Championships.

In 2015, he won the silver medal at the first European Games in Azerbaijan. On 10 September 2015, after winning against the then-reigning World Champion and then-Champion of Asia, Uzbek Rustam Assakalov scoring 6:0, Beleniuk won gold at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in the under-85 kg weight category.

In 2016, he won gold at the 2016 European Wrestling Championships, followed by the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.^[7]

In 2021, he won the gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 87 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.^[8]

Beleniuk was briefly a member of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. He left the National Olympic Committee in January 2023 due to disagreement with its new president Vadym Gutzeit.^[9] In 2024, Beleniuk won a bronze medal in the men's Greco-Roman 87 kg at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and subsequently retired from competing.^[10][11]

Politics

Beleniuk was elected a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada in July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a member of the Servant of the People political party.^[12] He was one of the first ten candidates on the party's electoral list.^[13]

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
2007	European Cadet Championships	Warsaw, Poland	2nd	Greco-Roman 76 kg
2008	European Cadet Championships	Daugavpils, Latvia	3rd	Greco-Roman 76 kg
2010	European Junior Championships	Samokov, Bulgaria	10th	Greco-Roman 84 kg
	World Junior Championships	Budapest, Hungary	3rd	Greco-Roman 84 kg
2011	European Junior Championships	Zrenjanin, Serbia	1st	Greco-Roman 84 kg
	World Junior Championships	Bucharest, Romania	2nd	Greco-Roman 84 kg
2012	European Championships	Belgrade, Serbia	3rd	Greco-Roman 84 kg
2013	European Championships	Tbilisi, Georgia	8th	Greco-Roman 84 kg
	Summer Universiade	Kazan, Russia	3rd	Greco-Roman 84 kg
2014	European Championships	Vantaa, Finland	1st	Greco-Roman 85 kg
	World Championships	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	3rd	Greco-Roman 85 kg
2015	European Games	Baku, Azerbaijan	2nd	Greco-Roman 85 kg
	World Championships	Las Vegas, United States	1st	Greco-Roman 85 kg
	Military World Games	Mungyeong, South Korea	1st	Greco-Roman 85 kg
2016	European Championships	Riga, Latvia	1st	Greco-Roman 85 kg
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brasil	2nd	Greco-Roman 85 kg
2018	World Championships	Budapest, Hungary	2nd	Greco-Roman 87 kg
2019	European Championships	Bucharest, Romania	1st	Greco-Roman 87 kg
	European Games	Minsk, Belarus	1st	Greco-Roman 87 kg
	World Championships	Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan	1st	Greco-Roman 87 kg
2021	European Championships	Warsaw, Poland	3rd	Greco-Roman 87 kg
	Olympic Games	Tokyo, Japan	1st	Greco-Roman 87 kg
2023	World Championships	Belgrade, Serbia	3rd	Greco-Roman 87 kg
2024	European Championships	Bucharest, Romania	3rd	Greco-Roman 87 kg
	Olympic Games	Paris, France	3rd	Greco-Roman 87 kg

International competition

International record
Res.	Record	Opponent	Score	Date	Event	Location	Notes
2021 Olympic Champion at 87kg
Win	4–0	Viktor Lőrincz	5–1	2021-08-04	2020 Summer Olympics	Tokyo, Japan
Win	3–0	Ivan Huklek	7–1	2021-08-03
Win	2–0	Bachir Sid Azara	1–1
Win	1–0	Zurab Datunashvili	3–1
2021 European Championships at 87kg
Win	3–1	Denis Kudla	1–1	2021-04-24	2021 European Championships	Warsaw, Poland
Win	2–1	Vjekoslav Luburić	7–1
Loss	1–1	Zurab Datunashvili	1–1	2021-04-23
Win	1–0	Oskar Johansson	7–1
2019 World Champion at 87kg
Win	5–0	Viktor Lőrincz	2–1	2019-09-16	2019 World Championships	Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Win	4–0	Denis Kudla	2–1	2019-09-15
Win	3–0	Mikalai Stadub	3–1
Win	2–0	Ivan Huklek	7–1
Win	1–0	Alfonso Leyva	5–1
2019 European Games Champion at 87kg
Win	4–0	Islam Abbasov	3–1	2019-06-30	2019 European Games	Minsk, Belarus
Win	3–0	Radzik Kuliyeu	3–1	2019-06-29
Win	2–0	Arkadiusz Kułynycz	9–1
Win	1–0	Maksim Manukyan	5–1
2019 European Champion at 87kg
Win	4–0	Islam Abbasov	5–1	2019-04-13	2019 European Championships	Bucharest, Romania
Win	3–0	Eividas Stankevičius	5–1	2019-04-12
Win	2–0	Erik Szilvássy	3–1
Win	1–0	Ivan Huklek	6–1
2018 UWW world at 87kg
Loss	4–1	Metehan Başar	1–2	2018-10-27	2018 World Championships	Budapest, Hungary
Win	4–0	Islam Abbasov	5–1	2018-10-26
Win	3–0	Hossein Nouri	4–2
Win	2–0	Artur Shahinyan	4–1
Win	1–0	Eividas Stankevičius	4–2
2016 Olympic at 85kg
Loss	3–1	Davit Chakvetadze	2-9	2016-08-15	2016 Summer Olympics	Rio de Janeiro
Win	3–0	Javid Hamzatau	6–0
Win	2–0	Nikolay Bayryakov	10–1
Win	1–0	Ahmed Othman	9–0
2016 European Champion at 85kg
Win	4–0	Roberti Kobliashvili	5–2	2016-03-13	European Championships	Riga, Latvia
Win	3–0	Laimutis Adomaitis	2–1
Win	2–0	Denis Kudla	6–1
Win	1–0	Kristofer Johansson	5–0
2015 UWW world at 85kg
Win	6–0	Rustam Assakalov	6–0	2015-09-09	2015 World Championships	Las Vegas, NV
Win	5–0	Saman Tahmasebi	3–1
Win	4–0	Damian Janikowski	2–1
Win	3–0	Viktor Lőrincz	3–1
Win	2–0	Ramsin Azizsir	3–0
Win	1–0	Alfonso Leyva	6–2
2015 European Games at 85kg
Loss	4–1	Davit Chakvetadze	2–3	2015-06-14	2015 European Games	Baku, Azerbaijan
Win	4–0	Maksim Manukyan	12–4
Win	3–0	Metehan Başar	3–1
Win	2–0	Attila Tamas	7–0
Win	1–0	Dejan Franjković	8–0
2014 UWW world at 85kg
Win	4–1	Ramsin Azizsir	3–0	2014-09-12	2014 World Championships	Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Loss	3–1	Saman Tahmasebi	0–4
Win	3–0	Ahmed Othman	10–1
Win	2–0	Pablo Shorey	6–1
Win	1–0	Rami Hietaniemi	1–0
2013 Summer Universiare at 84kg
Win	4–1	Nursultan Tursynov	3–1	2013-07-15	2013 Summer Universiade	Kazan, Russia
Loss	3–1	Maksim Manukyan	0–5
Win	3–0	Beka Rokva	3–1
Win	2–0	Tadeusz Michalik	3–1
Win	1–0	Aslan Atem	3–1

Beleniuk with President Volodymyr Zelensky in August 2019.

See also

• List of members of the parliament of Ukraine, 2019–24

Notes

1. Also transliterated Jean Vensanovich Belenyuk

References

1. Штогрін, Ірина (11 June 2019). "Чи пройшла Україна "тест Чепурного", реагуючи на першого темношкірого кандидата у депутати Жана Беленюка". Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 15 February 2021.
2. "Монобільшість Зе, бюджетні гроші для Шарія та перший темношкірий депутат. 7 "вперше" виборів у Раду | Громадське телебачення". hromadske.ua (in Ukrainian). 22 July 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
3. "Ukraine's Zhan Beleniuk reaches Greco-Roman wrestling quarter-finals at 2024 Olympics".
4. Melkozerova, Veronika. (14 December 2018). Zhan Beleniuk: Champion wrestler refuses better offers abroad to stay at home: ‘I belong here’. Archived 24 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine Kyiv Post. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
5. Bagaterenko, Anton (31 May 2014). "Жан Беленюк: "В Африке я слишком светлый, в Украине – слишком темный"" [Zhan Beleniuk: "In Africa I was too light, and in Ukraine — too dark"]. Tribuna.com (in Russian). Ukraine. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
6. "Жан Беленюк: "Мне не раз предлагали выступать за другие сборные, но я — украинец"". fakty.ua (in Russian). Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
7. "The Olympic Team of Ukraine: Rio 2016: Official Handbook" (PDF). noc-ukr.org. National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. p. 28. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2020. Беленюк Жан / Belenyuk Jean
8. "Wrestling: BELENIUK Zhan". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 28 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
9. "NOC excluded Surkis, Shufrych, Shevchenko and Belenyuk from its composition". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
10. "Ukraine wrestler Beleniuk wins bronze, retires". ESPN.com. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
11. "Wrestling Results Book" (PDF). 2024 Summer Olympics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
12. "Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party unveils candidates for parliament". Kyiv Post.
13. "First hundred candidates on Servant of the People's election list: who are they?". Archived from the original on 19 July 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019.

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Zhan Beleniuk". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.

External links

• Zhan Beleniuk at United World Wrestling (archived)
• Zhan Belenyuk at the International Wrestling Database
• Zhan Beleniuk at Olympics.com
• Zhan Beleniuk at Olympedia
• Jean Vensanovich Beleniuk at Verkhovna Rada (in Ukrainian)